


Sand Castles and Distant Memories

by greyedges



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: Before Hogwarts, Other, just sibling banter, they are babies, too young to label as romance or ship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:34:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27214987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greyedges/pseuds/greyedges
Summary: Albus and Scorpius meet at the park seven years before Hogwarts.
Kudos: 8





	Sand Castles and Distant Memories

It was a Sunday morning and Diagon Alley was rather quiet. By noon the roads would start to come to life but that was over an hour away.

Ginny Potter leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to her husband's cheek. "Are you sure you can handle all three of them for an hour or so?"

"I'll be fine, Gin. We'll just go to the park. That'll keep the boys busy," Harry responded confidently.

Since the war, the once small strip of wizarding shops and businesses, had flourished into the lively heart of magical England with many streets and paths branching off from the main street. Apartments and restaurants popped up everywhere, and a nice park had even been built with a walking path and jungle gym for children.

A slobbery giggle came from the stroller in front of them. Ginny turned to see her oldest son, James, making faces at his 18 month old sister. Lily was happily slapping her chubby hands on the tray in front of her at the sight of her brother.

Ginny smiled fondly and ruffled James' hair affectionately, "You guys be good for dad okay?" She then glanced up to see her other son walking away from the stroller, distracted by something in one of the closed shop windows.

"Albus," she snapped and the four year old's head turned to her instantly, his eyes wide with innocence. "Hand on the stroller, remember? We don't want you wandering," she said pointedly. He grumbled something unintelligible and pouted as he walked back towards his sister's stroller. "Don't make that face Mister, James is doing it just fine without complaining."

Harry sighed, taking her attention away from their son, "Go Ginny, have fun with the girls. I can take care them." She was meant to be meeting with her old teammates from when she was in the Holy Head Harpies for brunch.

"Thanks," She smiled, squeezing his arm before promptly placing a kiss to each of her children's head. She then left after choruses of 'Love you's were shared.

"To the park!" Harry announced to his kids as he began pushing the stroller forward. James bounced alongside him, his right hand stuck to the stroller as he talked about the most recent toy he'd seen in one of the shop windows, going on about how badly he wanted it.

As soon as they reached the park, James took off at a sprint, scaling up the rock wall in record speed in order to be the first one to go down the twisty slide.

Albus hung back, plopping down in the sand next to his sister who Harry had set on the ground. She wobbled as she walked through the sand and then fell onto her bum and giggled at her brother.

The park was relatively empty, except for two other families on the other side of the park that Harry didn't pay much mind to as he sat down on the bench nearest Lily and Albus.

"Don't eat the sand, it's yucky," Albus instructed, pushing his hands through the coarse material. He picked up and handful and let it fall through his fingers.

"Yucky," Lily repeated, shaking her head to show that she understood. She then copied Albus in picking up the sand.

"Albus!" James called, "ALBUS!" he repeated, jumping violently on the top platform of the jungle gym to get his attention.

Albus merely glanced up at his brother, unamused.

"It looks like James wants you to join him," Harry spoke, gesturing to James.

Albus huffed, "Okay." He pushed himself up from the ground and attempted to brush the sand off his shorts but it didn't do much good.

"Albusssss," James shouted, "Come race me!"

"Coming!" Albus called back, running through the sand as fast as he could towards the playground.

Racing James was never fun, yet Albus fell for it every time. No matter what they were racing or competing for, James always won. He was extremely competitive, and by every definition, an older brother - no one else was allowed to win, especially when it came to Albus.

As soon as Albus reached the top platform with James, he was spouting the rules.

"We're gonna race down the slides, to the swings and then run back to the stairs, over the bridge and who ever touches the fireman's pole first, wins," he explained.

"Okay," Albus nodded eagerly, mentally prepping himself for the race.

"On your mark... get set..." Before James could finish, he took off. Halfway down the slide he called, "GO!"

"HEY!" Albus cried, practically jumping after James down the slide, "That's not fair!" He stumbled off the slide, running with all his might after James towards the swings, "You went before you said 'go!'"

James just laughed triumphantly, tapping the pole of the swings and darting back towards the stairs of the jungle gym.

Albus tracked on, knowing he couldn't beat James but knowing he couldn't just give up.

James' winning cheer came as Albus was running across the wobbly bridge that connected the two parts of the jungle gym. He continued to run, using the force to shove James.

His brother only laughed as he was shoved into the railing, "You're just a sore loser."

"No, you cheated! I want a rematch!" Albus huffed, stomping his feet causing the metal to echo.

"Why, so I can beat you twice?" James snickered. That earned him another shove from Albus.

"Al," Harry's warning voice came from down below, "I can still see you from down here. Don't hurt your brother."

"Then make him play fair!" Albus whined.

"James," he said in the same tone.

Suddenly two boys around James' age, possibly older, skipped over to them, "Can we race you guys?" they asked eagerly.

"Yeah!" James agreed and then continued to explained the route they took.

Albus huffed, dismissing himself from the group silently, sliding down the nearest slide. He had no chance of winning now, with two more older boys against him.

It was then he noticed a small blond boy about his age and his mum sitting in the sand building what looked like a castle, which is what he'd wanted to do when they first arrived, but then James made him race. He hadn't noticed them earlier when racing James, but he'd been to preoccupied by trying to win.

He glanced back at where his dad and sister were seated on the other side of the playground but found he couldn't even see them through the bars of the jungle gym.

Albus trudged through the sand towards them, slowing down when he got closer.

"Are you building a sand castle?" he asked politely, crouching down to be closer to their height.

The blond boy turned towards him with a beaming smile, "Yes!"

"Cool," Albus smiled back.

"Would you like to help us?" The mum asked kindly, holding out a plastic shovel for him.

Albus could feel himself fill up with happiness, "Thanks." He accepted the shovel and sat down properly.

"You can help mummy with this wall," the boy instructed, pointing at a rather wonky wall with his shovel.

Albus nodded and carefully helped pat the sand down.

"How old are you?" the boy asked, "I'm four," he held up four wobbly fingers at Albus.

Albus couldn't help but beam back, "I'm four too!" he held up his own four fingers.

The blond kid laughed happily, "Will you be my friend, then? Since we're the same."

"We can be friends," Albus agreed.

They went back to patting at the sand and poking holes with their fingers for windows. 

The boy's mum broke their concentration to ask, "Was that your brother you were racing earlier?"

"Yeah," Albus huffed, "He never lets me win. Brothers are the worst."

The mum smiled fondly, "Scorpius here doesn't have any siblings."

"I have a baby sister too," Albus informed them.

"I have a mummy and a daddy though!" Scorpius replied proudly.

His mum chucked fondly, "Yes you do." She reached out and ruffled his blond hair.

They sat for a long while building up the castle and talking about random topics such as new toys and books they'd read.

"I think the castle is nearly finished, don't you?" his mum asked. "You know what it's missing though?"

Scorpius gasped, "We need a King and a Queen!"

"Yes," she agreed, using her wand to summon small action figures of a king and queen. She then handed Scorpius the king and Albus the queen. "Place them wherever you'd like."

Albus studied the castle carefully and decided to place the queen on the far right wall while Scorpius put his figure on the front.

"What else would a castle have?" She asked curiously.

"Knights?" Albus wondered.

"Very good," his mum nodded. She then summoned two knight figures, handing one to each of them. They both placed them on either side of the front door.

"Anything else?"

Scorpius gasped excitedly, "A dragon!"

His mum chuckled and summoned a dragon figurine. He happily grabbed it and placed it on the highest point of the castle.

"Now that we have everything placed, we should build a moat," she instructed.

"What's a moat?" Albus wondered.

"It surrounds the castle so the bad guys can't attack," she explained. "We can dig a river around the whole thing."

So they got to work at digging a wobbly circle around the castle. Albus enjoyed this part very much because he knew he couldn't mess anything up.

Once they were finished, she took out her wand again and water began gently pouring from the tip, filling up the moat.

Scorpius and Albus both giggled excitedly as the water surrounded the castle.

"Very nice job boys," She congratulated, holding out both her hands for high fives from them. They clapped her hands in sync and giggled to each other.

Albus held up his hand for Scorpius to high-five and smiled widely when he enthusiastically responded.

Before they could do or say anything else, Albus heard his dad call his name from the other side of the park.

"Albus! We're leaving!"

Albus didn't respond, pretending as if he couldn't hear him.

"I think your dad is calling you," his mum informed.

Albus didn't question how she knew his name, or that that was his dad and just huffed. "I don't wanna go."

She chuckled, "I think you should. We've finished the castle anyways."

"Can he stay, mummy?" Scorpius asked, a pleading pout formed on his lips.

"I don't think so darling," she sighed.

"Albus!" Harry's voice sounded again.

"Go on," she shooed, "You don't want to make him angry."

Before Albus could even move to get up, he heard his fathers footsteps behind him along with the sound of the stroller wheels on the sandy cement sidewalk.

"There you are," Harry sighed. He stepped forward and then got a good look at who Albus was sitting with and froze slightly.

"Dad, I want to stay," Albus whined, not noticing his father's hesitation.

"Come on," he said sternly, reaching down to grab Albus' wrist, pulling him up to his feet. "We're leaving now."

Hearing the sudden bitterness in his dad's voice made him uneasy, "Dad!" he cried in protest.

Harry pulled Albus towards the stroller where Lily was strapped in and kicking her feet impatiently, and James was standing with a bored look on his face.

"Bye!" Scorpius called, waving wildly, unaware of the sudden tension between their parents.

"Scorpius," his mum suddenly shushed him, holding her hand out gently.

His face contorted into confusion, why couldn't he say goodbye to his new friend?

Albus felt tears spring into his eyes as Harry clamped his hand onto the stroller for him. He was four years old after all, he didn't understand why he suddenly had to be forced from his new friend.

"Dad can we stay pleaaase," he cried.

"No, Albus," Harry snapped, pushing the stroller forward. "We're done at the park today. We've got to go find mummy."

"Dad, can we get ice cream?" James wondered.

That was the last thing Scorpius caught as the family walked away from the park rather quickly.

"Mummy?" he asked, "Why was his daddy so mean?"

Astoria sighed sadly, "His dad knew who I was sweetie."

Scorpius still couldn't understand, "But why was he mean?"

"You know how daddy has that scary mark on his arm?" Astoria asked softly.

Scorpius nodded. His dad always tried to hide it under his sleeves, and rarely let Scorpius look at it so it made him very curious.

"Well, most people don't like that, and they know that we're a family and some of them like to judge," she tried to explain. She had known that one day Scorpius would catch on to the judgement of their family. That was why it was such a treat for them to be able to come to the park, they had tried to choose a day where it wouldn't be so busy but it was hard to avoid everyone.

"But daddy doesn't like it either, don't they know?" Scorpius was struggling to wrap his tiny head around it and Astoria felt for him.

"You're right, but some people don't realize. I don't want you to worry about it though, okay?"

"Okay," Scorpius shrugged, already willing to move on.

"Shall we clean this up and head home then?" Astoria asked and Scorpius nodded eagerly.

"Can I stomp on it?" he asked, moving to his feet excitedly, their previous conversation already out of his mind.

"Go for it," Astoria urged, "Daddy will be so mad about our dirty shoes," she giggled, holding her hand over her mouth causing Scorpius to giggle with her mischievously.

He made a grand display of jumping on top of the castle, laughing triumphantly as it crumbled.

Seven years later neither Albus nor Scorpius would remember that day as they supposedly met for the first time on the Hogwarts Express.


End file.
